Ministers have agreed a secrecy clause in any dispute with the drugs manufacturer Pfizer over Britain’s Covid vaccine supply. Large portions of the government’s contracts with the company over the supply of 189m vaccine doses have been redacted and any arbitration proceedings will be kept secret. The revelation comes as Pfizer is accused by a Read more about ‘Wall of secrecy’ in Pfizer contracts as company accused of profiteering[…]

As rumored, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has ordered Meta (Facebook) to sell Giphy, saying the deal “could harm social media users and UK advertisers.” It found that the deal would boost Meta’s already prodigious market power by limiting other platforms’ access to Giphy GIFs, “driving more traffic to Facebook owned sites — Read more about UK competition regulator orders Meta to sell Giphy[…]

We’ve heard the fable of “the self-made billionaire” a thousand times: some unrecognized genius toiling away in a suburban garage stumbles upon The Next Big Thing, thereby single-handedly revolutionizing their industry and becoming insanely rich in the process — all while comfortably ignoring the fact that they’d received $300,000 in seed funding from their already Read more about Hitting the Books: How Amazon laundered the ‘myth of the founder’ into a business empire[…]

South Korean has again imposed new regulations on app stores, this time with a regime that will see operators fined up to two per cent of revenue if they force their proprietary in-app payment systems on developers. “Considering that certain payment methods compulsory acts are serious illegal acts of app market operators, an enforcement ordinance Read more about Big tech fined 2% revenue if they force their own in-app payment system in S Korea[…]

The north-German state of Schleswig-Holstein plans to switch to open source software, including LibreOffice, in its administration and schools. In doing so, the state wants to reduce its dependence on proprietary software, and eventually end it altogether. By the end of 2026, Microsoft Office is to be replaced by LibreOffice on all 25,000 computers used Read more about German state planning to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice[…]

MIT’s Technology Review shares data from a Facebook-run tool called CrowdTangle. It shows that by 2018 in the nation of Myanmar (population: 53 million), ” All the engagement had instead gone to fake news and clickbait websites. “In a country where Facebook is synonymous with the internet, the low-grade content overwhelmed other information sources.” [T]he Read more about How Facebook and Google Actually Fund the Creation of Misinformation[…]

China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has fined tech giants 43 times – with Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent told to pay up for failing to declare deals deemed to violate anti-monopoly legislation. According to SAMR, more rigorous anti-monopoly law enforcement has seen businesses file more paperwork, sometimes about past transactions. SAMR’s own probes have Read more about Beijing issues fines for 43 Big Tech M&A deals[…]

It’s been less than a year since Vizio became a publicly traded company, and one consequence of that is we know more about its business than ever before. The TV maker released its latest earnings report on Tuesday and revealed that over the last three months, its Platform Plus segment that includes advertising and viewer Read more about Vizio’s profit on ads, subscriptions, and data is double the money it makes selling TVs[…]

Aleksandr Zhukov, a Russian national and the self-proclaimed “king of fraud,” this week received a 10-year prison sentence for carrying out a $7m digital ad fraud scheme. Zhukov was convicted in May of multiple counts of fraud and money laundering. He was arrested in Bulgaria in 2018 and extradited to America the following year. “Sitting Read more about King of Ad Fraud Zhukov to reign in a US prison for years[…]

The European Commission is planning to ban payment for order flow, paralleling potential U.S. moves to stem a practice that hit the headlines during the meme-stock mania. A forthcoming review of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive will include a ban amid other measures to increase transparency, such as a consolidated tape of information about Read more about EU Plans to Ban Trading Practice That Helps Fuel GameStop Value Surge – or retail traders actually trade[…]

A Register reader triggered a kerfuffle for Samsung after asking the electronics biz if he could disable large and intrusive adverts splattered across his new smart TV’s programme guide. Ross McKillop bought the telly from UK retailer John Lewis but felt distinctly undersold when he turned it on to find the internet-connected device displaying advertising Read more about Reg reader ditches Samsung smart TV after seeing huge UI ads everywhere[…]

The civil trial of Ira Kleiman vs. Craig Wright started on Monday in Miami. The estate of David Kleiman is suing Craig Wright, the self declared inventor of bitcoin, for 50% ownership of 1.1 million bitcoins. The estate claims Kleiman was in a partnership with Wright to mine the coins but after Kleiman died in Read more about Kleiman v. Wright: $65 Billion Bitcoin Case Has Started[…]

 U.S. tech giant Google has paid Russia more than 32 million roubles ($455,079) in fines for failing to delete content Moscow deems illegal, the company and a Russian lawmaker said after talks on Monday. […] In 2020, Google’s compliance with requests to delete content was 96.2%, Pancini said, and in the first half of this Read more about Google pays fines to Russia over banned content – because fine is paltry[…]

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has smacked Facebook with a £50m ($68.7m) fine for “deliberately” not giving it the full picture about its ongoing $400m acquisition of gif-slinger Giphy. The move  – fingered by the CMA as a “major breach” – comes just weeks after the antisocial network dismissed the UK’s regulator’s initial findings as Read more about Facebook fined GBP 50m by UK for not supplying correct info on giphy takeover[…]

When asked in July, 2020, by US Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) whether Amazon ever mined data from its third-party vendors to launch competing products, founder and then CEO Jeff Bezos said he couldn’t answer “yes” or “no,” but insisted Amazon had rules disallowing the practice. “What I can tell you is we have a policy Read more about Amazon accused of copying merchant products in India[…]

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, whose high-profile antitrust lawsuit against Apple is now under appeal, is today calling out the iPhone maker for giving itself access to an advertising slot its competitors don’t have: the iPhone’s Settings screen. Some iOS 15 users noticed Apple is now advertising its own services at the top of their Read more about Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney calls out Apple for promoting its services in the iPhone Settings screen[…]

Apple’s decision to only allow Apple Pay to access the NFC chip in iPhones could result in the Silicon Valley giant paying hefty anti-monopoly fines in Europe. The EU is set to file anti-competitive charges against Cupertino regarding its tap-to-pay system, Reuters reported, citing sources. Euro antitrust watchdogs are apparently not happy that the NFC Read more about EU to file NFC antitrust charges against Apple Pay[…]

Several world leaders have denied wrongdoing after featuring in a huge leak of financial documents from offshore companies. Dubbed the Pandora Papers, the 12 million files constitute the biggest such leak in history. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Jordan’s King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein are among some 35 current and former leaders linked to the Read more about Pandora Papers: World leaders deny wrongdoing after leaks[…]

China’s central bank said on Friday that all cryptocurrency-related transactions are illegal in the country and they must be banned, citing concerns around national security and “safety of people’s assets.” The world’s most populated nation also said that foreign exchanges are banned from providing services to users in the country. In a joint statement, ten Read more about China says all cryptocurrency-related transactions are illegal and must be banned[…]

NEW DELHI, Sept 18 (Reuters) – Google abused the dominant position of its Android operating system in India, using its “huge financial muscle” to illegally hurt competitors, the country’s antitrust authority found in a report on its two-year probe seen by Reuters. Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google reduced “the ability and incentive of device manufacturers to Read more about India antitrust probe finds Google abused Android dominance[…]